Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat.
Mother Teresa.
The present invention relates to a new ornamental chrysanthemum plant christened as xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat, a member of the Chrysanthemum genus, which has been developed using the open pollinated seedling method. Chrysanthemum morifolium is a popular flower crop of world-wide commercial importance. Chrysanthemum varieties have earned tremendous popularity as an ornamental flower for garden, as cut flowers for interior decoration and loose flower. Demand of new and novel varieties of Chrysanthemum are increasing day-by-day in the world floriculture trade.
Chrysanthemum can be propagated both by seed and vegetative means. Cross breeding and selective breeding helped in developing large number of new varieties. The genotype xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99 has evolved through seedling selections of open pollinations among specific group of chrysanthemum. The new genotype evolved in this invention represents such an improvement combining novel flower colour and shape and plant stature. The new variety offers the floriculturists/nurserymen an improved attractive novel ornamental plant which can be commercially cultivated.
The present invention provides a new arid distinct hybrid Chrysanthemum morifolium variety christened as xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99 characterized by profuse blooming habit, dwarf bush, white Anemone type mini plant habit.
The invention provides a new, novel and distinct hybrid Chrysanthemum morifolium plant christened as xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99, having the following combination of characters:
(a) Green foliage with few white streaks,
(b) White Anemone type flower;
(c) Dwarf bushy, compact round shaped, profuse blooming plant, suitable for mini culture;
(d) Pigment composition of petals being distinct from other existing varieties, and
(f) True-to-type performance under different environments.
The new variety of this invention is a Chrysanthemum morifolium genotype, christened as xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99. This plant has been developed through planned breeding programmes conducted at National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India with an aim to develop a new hybrid variety of Chrysanthemum morifolium. For this purpose existing mini varieties of chrysanthemum i.e. Haldighati and Swarna Singar (unpatented varieties) were grown very closely in the field in August 1989 at Lucknow, India facilitating pollination among themselves. The seeds borne on existing cultivars (Haldighati and Swarna Singar) were collected in January 1990 and were sown in February 1990. One of the plants in the field was a dwarf plant that exhibited Anemone type flowers and profuse blooming. This plant was given number DWS 13 and was selected for further observation and evaluation.
Considering the attractive flower colour and shape and plant growth habit, it was asexually reproduced in Lucknow, India through suckers to maintain clonal purity. The selected clone DWS 13 was grown both in beds and 10xe2x80x3 earthen pots alongwith existing mini varieties (Haldighati and Swarna Singar) for five successive generations from 1990 upto 1995. The clone DWS 13 maintained its flower colour and shape and plant growth habit in all the generations. This plant was found to be different from all other chrysanthemum plants in colour of flowers, shape and pigment composition of petals.
In the subsequent year (1996), the genotype DWS 13 was evaluated in both replicated field and pot trial alongwith existing parents to study the flower colour and shape and plant growth habit. The clone DWS 12 bred true to type and proved very attractive over the existing varieties in quality of bloom including colour, shape and type of bloom. Chrysanthemum cultivation (large and small flowered cultivars) require lot of cultural operations including xe2x80x98Pinchingxe2x80x99 and xe2x80x98Stakingxe2x80x99. For small flowered Chrysanthemum apical shoot tips are cut (half to one inch) to give proper shape to the plant. This operation is called xe2x80x9cPinchingxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cStakingxe2x80x9d is necessary to keep plants erect and to maintain proper shape of plant and bloom. These operations are expensive and time consuming.
National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow, India has already developed xe2x80x98Mini Chrysanthemumxe2x80x99 which is unique of its kind. It requires neither xe2x80x98Pinchingxe2x80x99 nor xe2x80x98Stakingxe2x80x99. It is a unique genetic strain with dwarf; bushy, compact round shaped, profuse blooming habit. Number of existing mini varieties and their colour is very limited at present. Efforts were made to develop new flower colour under an on going improvement research programme.
The new clone DWS 13, selected from open pollinated, seedling, is a product of this Research Programme and has been Christened xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99.
The genotype xe2x80x98Mother Teresaxe2x80x99 has remained stable and uniform for its morphological characters and showed consistency in performance for various vegetative and floral quality attributes during its evaluation and vegetative multiplication from 1990 until 1995.
No variation was detected in morphological characters especially in the flower colour characters through vegetative multiplication during large scale propagation, testing and field trial upto 1997.